Fairguard’s waterlogged streetways were suspiciously quiet. Not due to a lack of people either, Ashwyn noted. Citizens and soldiers alike scurried to and fro across the mazework of wooden planks connecting one rickety building to the next. All around, the settlement was abuzz with hushed excitement. Everywhere Ashwyn looked, people crowded together in small groups, whispering fervently to one another. Regrettably, the hushed whispers fell silent each time Ashwyn neared. The dirty looks that followed were not aimed at her, she soon realized, but at her reluctant tagalong. Rali followed in Ashwyn’s wake, unaffected by the stares, as if the potency of public disdain had worn off ages ago.
Fairgaurd’s population was primarily dwarfs and they did not hide their contempt for the infamous upstart, Quartz Ralizak. There wasn’t time to get to the bottom of that, either. The weather was turning. Every bitter breath Ashwyn drew into her lungs was cold and stiflingly dry, carrying the icy promise of soon-to-be snow. The last thing she needed was to be caught outside when the first flurry started. Unlike the whispering denizens, however, Ashwyn didn’t have a choice. She had to find what she was looking for — whom, specifically — before either party froze to death.
The large orc slogged along the muddy streets, checking all of the settlement’s hidden nooks and crannies as she went, doing her best not to draw attention. On her own, said task would have been a breeze. Unfortunately, the one thing Rali attracted in droves was attention, particularly of the unwanted variety.
“We should go check the tavern,” Rali said, pretending not to notice the glaring huddle of onlookers across from them. “See if your missing gobbies are in there.”
“We already checked the tavern.”
“Wouldn’t hurt to look again.” The stocky dwarf slowly meandered along in Ashwyn’s wake with her hands stuffed deep in her pockets, shivering from the worsening cold. “We could press a few people, see if anyone’s seen anything, warm up by the fire, and maybe grab a drink or two while we’re at it.”
That sounded lovely, actually. Except for the part that involved drinking with Rali. Ashwyn had no doubt that they’d wake up under a broken table somewhere, sporting injuries from a bar fight neither of them remembered. “Tell you what, Rals, we’ll split up. You go do that and I’ll keep doing what I’m doing, what do you say? I’ll come find you when I need you.”
Rali frowned at the suggestion. “Won’t work.”
“No?” Funny. Ashwyn’s power of suggestion usually worked on people.
“You can’t exactly pay my way if you’re out here catching your death in the cold.”
“Of course not,” Ashwyn muttered as she turned a sudden, sharp corner and disappeared down the dark alleyway squeezed between two rickety buildings, hopeful that Rali wouldn’t follow. She needed Rali, eventually, yes. But not yet. The least the damn dwarf could do was go darken someone else’s existence for the time being.
Having scoured the streets of Fairguard for the better part of the afternoon, Ashwyn was starting to run out of places to look. She’d already checked outside the settlement walls, and walked up and down the road along the forest, before concluding that her missing goblin entourage must have snuck their way inside. Figures, the one time Ashwyn needed their help, and suddenly the bothersome trio were nowhere to be found.
To Ashwyn’s dismay, Rali’s squat form came swaggering around the corner, mouth still running. “Have we ruled out yet that these little voices you heard were real and not, say, I don’t know, a drug-fueled hallucination?”
Ashwyn stiffened at the slight. Rali’s constant verbal poking and prodding was steadily wearing her dwindling patience razor thin. “Do you know what I give for a drug-fueled hallucination right now? I’ve been involuntarily sober for weeks!”
“Mhm.” Rali gazed up at her with a look caught somewhere between irritated and bored. “I watched you swipe a bottle in the market on our way out.”
“And I haven’t slung it back yet, have I? It’s for drowning my sorrows later. Until then, I’m still painfully unintoxicated, thank you very much.” Ashwyn glanced over her shoulder in time to catch the glimpse of disgust that flitted across Rali’s otherwise bored expression. Insult lanced down the orc’s rigid spine. Instinctively, Ashwyn clicked her tusks against her upper teeth as a warning. “Don’t look at me like that.”
Rali, naturally, continued to do so, adding the slightest lift of an eyebrow to truly drive her point home.
“You’re one to talk, you know. I can smell the liquor on you a mile away.”
As blessed as Rali’s silence was, it didn’t last. The final straw snapped and the anger she’d been bottling up all afternoon finally bubbled over. “Damn right, I’m one to talk! I’m allowed to be like this. I earned it. I tried my darndest and nobody wanted to listen. What about you, huh? Can you say the same? Did you even try to meet Ellisar halfway before running her off?”
“This again? Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously. Because, unlike you apparently, I don’t give up on people the moment things get sticky.”
Rali’s words were the verbal equivalent of a sucker punch to the gut. Ashwyn nearly doubled over, feeling her breath expel from her frigid lungs, as she whipped around to face her opponent head-on.
“And, for the record,” Rali added, “it’s not just El I’m mad about. You lost Snag too.”
“I didn’t lose him.”
“But you didn’t very well stop him either, did you? He should have been a fucking breeze. All you had to do was make Snag feel more sorry for you than he does about himself.” Rali sucked her front teeth as she looked Ashwyn up and down with a look of blatant disdain. “I bet you didn’t even try.”
The tip of Ashwyn’s nose stung against the cold as a blistering heat built beneath her blue-gray skin. “For the last fucking time, I didn’t run off your family.”
“You see, you say that, but they’re not here, are they?”
Not worth it. Not worth it. Not worth it, Ashwyn chanted her internal mantra as she turned and continued her search down the long dark alley. Find the goblins first. Fistfight Rali later.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“Flipping the tables, are we?” The dwarf’s baritone voice hollered after her. “You can run all you like, but you’re not shaking me. I’m here to the end, just like a true friend should be.”
“Will you give it a rest?”
“Why?” Rali replied. “Will it bring back my family?”
Gods dammit! Like a dog with its teeth already sunk in, Rali wasn’t going to let it go until she’d satiated her need for blood. Ashwyn whipped about and took three intimidating steps in her direction before stopping. “Will picking a fight with me bring back your family?”
The dwarf brazenly held her ground. “No, but it might make me feel better.”
“You want to do this right now? Then fine, we’ll do it.” Forget fists, Ashwyn was going to fight with words. “Yes, Ellisar and I ended things. It fucking sucks. For her, for me, for you, everyone involved. A lifetime built together down the drain, just like that. I get why you’re mad, Rali. You’d obviously rather have her here than me, but the fact is I’m the one who showed up. And I think that’s what’s really gone and put the bur in your britches. You’re finally learning that your friendship didn’t mean nearly as much to her as did you.”
Whatever Rali had mentally steeled herself against, it certainly wasn’t that. The hurt slipped through around the edges of her expression.
“Welcome to Ellisar!” Ashwyn threw her hands out at her sides with far more flourish than she felt inside. “You’ll drive yourself mad thinking you can change her. Believe me, I’m the expert in that department.”
Rali’s face changed. An impenetrable mask of cold calculatedness settled into place, dispelling any trace of her former hurt. “Nah, see, I never tried to change her. That’s the difference between you and me.”
“Good for you then.” Ashwyn forced a tight-lipped smile. “Now you want to continue beating this dead horse or can we go back to finding our messengers?”
Rali’s expression made it abundantly clear which of those two options she preferred. In fact, it offered a third option, one which involved beating Ashwyn instead of the dead horse.
It was time to pull out the full stops, apparently. “We could always talk about what’s going on between you and the captain. Or, rather, what’s not going on between the two of you?”
Rali’s mask stayed fixed in place. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Really?” Ashwyn challenged. “Because there’s chemistry there. I could practically taste it when the two of you interact. And don’t think I notice the sad way he looks at you, or you him. Or that fact that even though you’ve clearly slept together, you’re not sharing a bed. You’ve been demoted to the couch, Rali. That must sting.”
“I like my space.” She shrugged.
“So I’ve heard. El always said you were real good at pushing prospective partners away. You’d let them get just close enough to see a glimpse of what’s inside and then you’d shut them out. Can’t say I blame you. If you don’t like what’s on the inside, how could anyone else, right?” Schmoozing and fighting weren’t Ashwyn’s only gifts. You didn’t survive a life of degeneracy without knowing how to read your mark. Normally Ashwyn wouldn’t have bothered with someone with Rali, as the prize wasn’t worth the cost, but the dwarf had brought it upon herself and Ashwyn was determined to use every underhanded tactic she had to cut her low.
“Good guess,” Rali congratulated, still sounding strangely distant. “Wasn’t me this time though. Not entirely, anyway.”
Ashwyn had aimed to cut Rali low. She wanted an angry, explosive opponent. Anger was uncomplicated. It was both predictable and easily exploited, something Ashwyn had intended to use to her advantage. This, however, was not that. She was supposed to be working the dwarf into an angry fireball of fury, not relating to her on a personal level!
Ashwyn ran a heavy hand down her weary face with a sigh. “He pushed you out before you could push him? Is that it?”
Rali’s mask of indifference slipped. Unconsciously, she shifted her weight from foot to foot as she spoke. “In a way. We were a thing for a while, and then we weren’t. I was stupid to think things would go back to the way they were before I left. But it can’t. We want different things. He suggested we just stay friends. Keep things clean this time around, avoid getting caught up in something that won’t last.”
This wasn’t going at all how Ashwyn expected. “Ah.”
“The worst part is he’s nice about it. Offered his couch and even got me in front of the seneschal. Twice, actually.” Rali managed a weak, halfhearted laugh. “And then I blew up on his boss and nearly got us thrown out. So I guess it’s probably better we didn’t get entangled this time.”
Well, that certainly explained the underlying anger. In addition to losing her family, and failing Oralia, her closest friend, Rali was mourning the loss of her lover, too. No wonder she’d been so hellbent on picking a fight. Ashwyn unclenched her jaw with another weak sigh. “I don’t like feeling sorry for you.”
“Good. Don’t,” Rali said. “Can’t have you holding punches when I kick your ass for losing the best thing that ever happened to you.”
“Can we postpone the ass-kicking for later then?” Ashwyn rubbed her arms for warmth as she craned her head back and gazed up at the thick, gray clouds overhead. Little specks of white were already slowly drifting downward. “We’re in a race against time and the elements here. We’ve got to send our message along before the snow makes the roads untravellable.”
“Fine,” Rali conceded with a huff. “But only because it involves bringing Snag home, where he belongs.”
“Boo!” A shrill voice called out from somewhere along the roofline. “No making up, we want to see blood.”
Two additional voices joined the first until the alley was filled with the prepubescent squeak of disgruntled teenagers.
“Yeah, teach the big meanie orc a lesson!”
“Bully her like she bullied us.”
Relief washed over Ashwyn. That, and annoyance, as obviously the little buggers had not only been watching her, but listening too. She raised her voice to be heard over the clamor. “You three still want to make a name for yourselves?”
“Maybe,” Spoon Ear’s distinctively shrill voice echoed back down. “Depends on what you’re asking of us.”
Ashwyn stepped aside, gesturing to Rali. “The three of you have obviously heard of Snag’s former team, the faithful four. I’d like to introduce you to the most notorious member of the bunch.”
As quick as lightning, the three young goblins materialized out of the shadows and into the alleyway. Twig edged tentatively closer, attempting to peer past Ashwyn. “You fooling with us, orc? That’s not really her, is it?”
Spoon Ear tilted her head to the side curiously. “She’s so stumpy.”
“And round,” Smiley contributed.
“Stumpy and round.” Ashwyn gazed back over her shoulder at Rali with a smirk. “Are you just going to stand there and take that from them?”
“Alright, listen here, buckos,” Rali barreled forward. “Unless the name you’re looking for is dead, it’d do you some good to shut your gobs and open your ears. What do you say?”
The trio fell silent as they shrank back in a stunned mix of fear and adoration.
Rali fed on their fear like a shark to blood. She paced in front of them, eyeing each one up and down. “You want a name? A title? Reputation? I’ve got just the thing to make you the who’s who of all goblin-kind. Lucky for you swabbies it’s not even going to be that hard. All you’ve got to do is run a little message back to Snag for me. Think you can handle that?”
They nodded their heads in unison.
“Excellent!” Rali clapped her hands together in agreement. “Now listen good, because we’re gonna go over this word-for-word until you’ve got it right. The whole fate of the world may very well be resting on your wee little heads.”